My First Hermo Experience

Been doing a lot of online shopping recently and finally I grabbed the chance to purchase some items from one of the beauty web sites www.hermo.com.my,

Items nicely bubble wrapped

The promotion which caught my eye was mask brand Sophie Monk which is selling at RM19.90 for total of 10 pcs of masks! I initially thought it was the same Korean brand I bought last year which is call Faith in Face as they have very similar packaging. The price difference between these 2 brands are steep as Faith in Face is selling at close to RM10/piece. Sophie Monk 10 mask pack comes in 3 x Crystal Clear Whitening Miracle Mask, 3 x Camera Face Facial Pore Purifying Mask and 4 x Splash Skin Night & Fight Moisture Miracle Mask. I have yet try on the masks and will write a review later on. Keeping my finger crossed that the quality will be as good as the Faith in Face mask.

3 different mask choices

The other item I wanted to talk about is the Perfect Skin Absolute Marble Stick Foundation. Been eyeing on this item for quite some time but couldn't make up my mind whether to get it or not since I have bought my 3CE liquid foundation during my Korea trip few months back. Well being a woman, a greedy and curious one, I couldn't hold the urge and yea I bought it at a discounted price at Hermo. The foundation is pretty impressive as its moisturizing and give an instant glow to my face. I personally think it suits dry/combination skin more as it may be too moisturizing for oily skin. What I like most about this product is its so easy to use. What I did was just draw few strokes on my face with the stick and blended it with the foundation brush attached to the stick. Its really easy and hassle free! No more messy and dirty hands applying foundation..yay!

The last 2 items I bought were Memebox Lip Tint in 2 colors which are Macao Magenta and Russia Purple. I love Macao Magenta vibrant pink effect and its very moisturizing and long lasting on my lips! However I was a bit disappointed with Russia Purple as I expect the color to be more vibrant, it turns out to be a darker shade purple. It looks a bit mature and mysterious on the lips and I am ok to add this into my collection as I never own any lip color like this before.

All in all, it was an okay experience for me to shop at Hermo. I personally think they can improve their order process time as they took around 2 to 3 days to process my orders and another 2 days to deliver my items. I will expect a shorter time frame to get my items as its within Malaysia. I usually receive my items in 5 days time too if I shop at Taobao. However one thing I like most about their service is they deliver items on the weekend too, I actually received my parcel on a Sunday afternoon! Good job to the delivery company!

Free sample from Hermo

This is a brief review on my shopping experience with Hermo and hopefully they will continue to improve and able to offer more discounts and free samples for future purchase! ^^

Do It Like You Mean It

Will be flying off tomorrow night to Korea for Jeju Salsa Festival. This is the third year am attending the event and the only difference for this year is am bringing the Bailamos Dance Team to perform and hopefully open their eyes and get inspired to be a better dancer.

All this while Ive been putting a lot of effort and time in building a group of dancers hopefully to have as much passion towards salsa as me. I fully understand that I cant expect everyone will have the equal passion as me but I do hope that they will be truthful to what they really passionate about and not forcing themselves to pretend to like something.

Being able to perform in Korea, which is the top salsa country is my dream and initially I feel really excited and looking forward to be able to share the stage with the team to show everyone that Malaysians can dance salsa too. I wrote a thank you and encouraging notes to Bailamos team today and what I received is silence. For the first 2 hours when the messages were posted, Gary told me don't think too much as the team members actually appreciate our effort. I tried to comfort and convince myself to think positively but I have to accept the fact that they are just not so keen after all of doesn't even bother to reply for the entire day. Words cant express how disappointed I am. I don't want to make it like am forcing the team to perform, at this second what I really wanted to do is call off the performance. I don't need a group of non spirit and reluctant people to be on the stage honestly. Why do it if you don't want to do it at all?

My way of working is always the same, if you make up your mind to do something, do it 101%. Else forget about it.

Detox Healthy Juice

Every morning I make it a habit to take fresh blended fruit juice. Been doing this for a while and I can see there is a slight improvements in my complexion, losing pounds and better antibody. Am going to share my recipe here, try it and you may like it! =)

Ingredients:
1 Apple
One stalk of celery
One slice of lemon
Strawberries if u have any
One tablespoon of honey

Put all ingredients into your blender and blend them smooth. Now you can enjoy your fresh fruit juice.

Please consume fresh fruit juice right away from the blender to get the maximum benefits of the fruits.

Dinner and Salsa

Had 2 hours nap and woke up at 7pm today due to tiredness of all the practices lately. Was afraid that I couldnt sleep tonight so suggested Gary to check out Braveheart salsa place at Plaza Damas tonight. At least I could workout a bit to tire myself of a better sleep tonight.

We had dinner with Ferdy before salsa at Rakuzen Jap cruisine. Was excited as it has been a while I didn't have any jap food. We ate and chit chat..it was a really nice and relaxing dinner.  After dinner we proceed to braveheart.

My first impression of braveheart is its a small pub and reminded me of qba. There are girls who serve men in the pub but I dont see any hanky panky things happening around. They have a wooden small dance floor which can fit max of 6 couples and the flooring is pretty good. It has been a long while I have not go to explore any new salsa places due to my tight teaching and practice schedule and I am really excited to visit this new salsa place in town. I seen familiar faces which it has been a long while I have not seen. The dance style and music reminded me of my early salsa days. They were the people i use to see almost everyday,  happily dancing and yes some of them are real cuban dancers.

Am not sure since when I have been labeled as a slot dancer but it doesnt really matters to me. I use to dance cuban and even today when a cuban guy comes and invite me to dance, am still more than happy to dance in a circle. As I dance longer I have preference in song choices which are more to mambo songs. I grew interest and love in on2 and I find myself to enjoy more in certain songs dancing on2. To me on1 and on2 are both equally nice its just a matter of choices and preference. I dont like to differentiate myself from either cuban or slot dancers as I think dancing is a fun activity. 

Enough of the dance theory and I shall hit my bed now...good night and tomorrow will b a great day!

CC Cream and Cure Natural Aqua Gel

Besides dancing, am a total beauty experiment freak. I use to spend a lot on trying different types of skin care products and it leads to a lot of wastage too. When I grow older, I learn to pick things more carefully and try to buy only things which is higher quality and needed.

Yesterday I popped by Etude House as they are having buy 1 free 1 promotion for the weekend. Before I went to the shop, I have actually did a bit of research on CC cream. CC cream stands for colour correction cream and it is suppose to correct dull, reddish or yellowish skin tone. I read a lot of positive comments on Clinique CC cream and I was a bit concern on Clinique brand because of the allergy reaction I had using their products many years ago. Yesterday I went to both Clinique and Etude house to try their CC cream.

Clinique CC cream has 5 colours selections and the texture is very moisture. They are selling at RM120 for a 60g tube which I think it is very reasonable. The SA recommended me to try on both peach colour and light neutral colour. To be honest the texture is very light, peach colour brightens up my skin a lot and the light neutral blend into my skin colour perfectly like I am not wearing anything on my face. The SA suggested me to take light neutral but in the end I didn't for 2 reasons: 1. I don't need a tinted cream which makes me look like am not wearing anything on my face. It doesn't cover my small freckles and I find it is pointless. 2. I still have the uneasy feeling towards Clinique brand as I am afraid it will trigger my allergy again. And so I have proceed to Etude House. Been using Etude House Precious BB cream for 2 years and I have no complaints on this product. It is moisturizing, provided perfect coverage on my small freckles and it stays on my face for whole day.



The Etude House SA was very nice and helpful which she helped me to apply CC cream on my face with care, the CC cream is in white light watery texture and once it hits my skin it slowly blend into my skin colour. My skin looks instantly brighter and smooth but the coverage is still very sheer which I need to dab on BB cream on my freckles still. Etude House is selling at RM89.90 for a 35g tube which I think it is slightly expensive. In the end I still bought this little tube home as I feel more confident in their brand. =) BB cream and CC cream are all originated from Korea so I bet it is rather safe to buy from a Korean brand.



Another product which I bought yesterday was the Cure Natural Aqua Gel. I got it from SASA at the price of RM110 for 250g. This gel is from Japan and apparently they claimed that 1 bottle is sold in every 12 seconds. So what is Cure Natural Aqua Gel?

'Natural Aqua Gel is a gentle, water-based exfoliant made from natural plant extracts of aloe vera, gingko and rosemary. It effectively sloughs off dead skin cells without irritating or harming skin, making it suitable even for the most sensitive skin types. After cleansing face, apply gel on face and neck. Gently massage gel into skin and see the dead skin cells immediately peel off into tiny white balls. Rinse well with water and then pat skin dry.'

 

I tried it on my face yesterday and it actually brightens up my face instantly. My face doesn't feel dry at all and I think it suits my dry and sensitive skin very well. I will continue to use this product weekly and I guess this whole bottle will last me a year or so. =D

Busy Bee On a Lazy Sunday

Woke up 8:30 am in a Sunday morning to go for salsa practice. So reluctant but yet I know it's something which I can't escape. Was tired practicing yesterday and today as I am having slight flu thanks to Gary! :(



Preparing to go for practice

Time flies which next week will be the first batch of open level group performance, it took me and Fai near to 4 months to complete the whole routine. It is not an easy job as this is the first time I choreograph a proper group salsa dance and I am inexperience at it. I've been learning all the way and I have to thank my teaching partner Fai for his patience and guidance and of course the group of students who is willing to do this with us. I shall ask them for forgiveness of whichever things I've done wrong and their patience of learning from a newbie instructor like myself. I promise to improve and do better for the coming classes and performances.

I have decided to name our group Bailamos Amateur team. It's the group name which inherited from my previous salsa instructor Lion Gak. I wish that we can continue his spirit and passion towards salsa even though he has gone back to his home land Korea. I will like to thank him whole heartedly of what he has taught me and the inspiration he left in my heart. Whenever I feel down and near to giving up, I will remind myself of how he always tell me " MAVIS CAN CAN~~~". =)

I will keep my finger crossed that next week we will put on a good show, its not about having a perfect performance for now, but to showcase everyone's hard work and effort they have put in these few months. I am very proud of the team fdeep down in my heart, from a shaky single spin the girls are able to do a double spin now, from no lady styling at all, they now try their best to do all the styling to timing. Lets rock the dance floor on 8th June 2013!

Performance outfit

The return of bebe mavis

2nd June 2013 12:10am I have created this blog to drop down little things which is worth to remember when I grow old. Use to be very active in blogging and I hope this will not be another blog which I abandon! =)

Going to sleep now as tomorrow am going to have morning practice session for my very first salsa group choreography performance next Saturday!